Technology is touching every aspect of the industry today, whether it’s education, healthcare, financial, or even real-estate. Either you are planning to buy a home, or you want to sell one, browsing through the listings on your phone is a common trend these days.
Buyers can now view a 2000 miles away neighborhood through the use of drones. You can easily search for new homes by merely downloading the app, putting in your location, and browsing through the results. In fact, almost 70% of the buyers today, search for homes online, while 85% of the agents use texting to do the work. Through the use of websites and mobile apps, it is much easier now to make more informed decisions.
Today’s technology has created a lot of opportunities in both the commercial as well as residential properties. It has transformed the real estate industry. Let’s check out how!
How Is Technology Changing Real Estate?
These real estate technologies have risen rapidly from $5 Billion in 2017 to $18 billion in 2018. Let us have a look at how tech is changing the real estate industry.
#1: Online Listings:
With the development of more websites, real estate business has flourished a lot. Now users find it easy to view inventory and property sites. These concerned websites, along with the actual images of the sites, offers a more detailed description and ratings of the sites. You can now view the nearest station, purchase history, school ratings, and much more seamlessly.
#2: 3-D Virtual Tours:
Besides providing a satellite view of the actual site, today’s technology also offers a 3-D view of the residential complex. The new software allows the buyers and sellers to take a 3-D virtual tour while making you feel as if you are walking through Space.
#3: Real Estate Mobile Apps:
Similar to the websites, we have mobile apps catering to the needs of the user. These apps keep the user informed about the latest property listings. Moreover, these apps also help the user to contact the property manager and takes care of their budget too.
#4: Online Investing:
Through the introduction of websites and mobile apps in the real estate industry, investing has now become quite an easy task for users. Many new websites and mobile apps have made it simple for anyone to invest in high-quality real estate by pooling their resources online.
#5: E-signing Services:
Many new platforms are becoming available to facilitate the easy transaction process. These platforms help to complete multi-party transactions, which in turn saves a lot of time. Apart from that, many of its features like e-signature, and secure file sharing, helps to keep the work organized efficiently.
So now we know how digitization in the global market changed the real estate industry. We shall now look at the technologies that shaped the future of the real estate. These technologies, in some form or the other, has helped a lot in transforming the real estate industry.
Let’s discuss them.
Also Read- How to Develop Real Estate Transaction Management Software?
Technologies Transforming The Real Estate Industry
Below are some of the techniques that are changing the landscape of the real estate industry.
#1: Blockchain Technology:
Blockchain has gained quite some popularity in the real estate industry due to its ability to process significant transactions quickly. Through the use of Blockchain, people find it easier to process transactions without going through intermediaries like banks, credit card companies, or the govt.
This disruptive technology also eliminates the paper license needs, paper title deeds, and creates computer-based processes for seamless transactions. All these processes streamline the work of investors purchasing commercial real estate. However, despite all these great features, it is a bit unclear about the adoption of Blockchain soon.
#2: AR and VR Development:
Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality have gained immense popularity in the real estate sector. As per the reports by Statista, the total revenue in the AR/VR industry is estimated to be $2.6 billion by the year 2025. The potential of these technologies is way beyond what the user can think.
The use of VR is increasing day by day. With the help of VR, buyers and visitors can now seamlessly view the property, despite their physical location. The use of VR also enables visitors to visualize the design spaces that can help in the interior designing process, as well.
#3: 3-D Printing and Robotics Technology:
Construction technology, more popularly known as Contech, is transforming the future of real estate these days. With simplifying and eliminating the complex manual processes, the construction sector is now relying on drones. These robotic drones help the user in monitoring the working site to instruct the unmanned bulldozers around the sites.
Moreover, these drones also create a 3-D map of the actual site to provide an overview of inventory, deliveries, and the work’s progress. With this technology, the construction sector has solved a big issue of worker safety.
#4: Artificial Intelligence in Real Estate:
The use of AI in real estate sector is not new & AI-driven chatbots are helping real estate companies by providing standard info related to the property. Moreover, they are also helping investors by offering pictures and videos showing human intervention, if any.
Since chatbots are available 24*7, they support the buyers in filling out the form even during the off-hours. In short, chatbots lower sales and marketing costs and increase conversion rates.
#5: Internet of Things Technology :
IoT technology now lives inside houses. Smart cities and buildings are no longer a thing of the future. IoT has controlled and automated many features of smart homes, such as lightning, doors, switches, locks, and much more. Apart from that, this technology has also boosted efficiency and reduces energy waste.
The primary objective of IoT in real estate was to enhance the quality of life. It has also paved the way for the smart city concept. Once the sensors are in the correct place, then every action of the tenant becomes a data point that can be used to improve their experiences.
These technologies are shaping the future of the real estate industry. They have already transformed the past scenario of the industry, and it is no surprise that we will see a more advanced version of the real estate industry very soon.
Let’s look at the current scenario of the real estate industry
Real Estate Businesses Using Technology Effectively
Here are some main use cases of different technologies disrupting the real estate sector. These technologies helped the real estate industry to embrace innovations and offered enormous opportunities to new Proptech companies. Let’s have a look
#1: Development:
Digitization and improvements in big data have provided better insight into trends and occupancy rates. The omnipresence of digital devices like GPS systems is helping developers to make more informed decisions.
Developers today are making significant progress by using the latest tech sources such as Yelp or Google Maps to get better predictions about potential areas with price appreciations. Moreover, ML and big data analysis are also contributing to the development process by supporting investment decisions.
#2: Building Design:
As discussed earlier, Smart cities are not a thing of the future anymore. With the introduction of IoT in the real estate industry, we have already started to leverage the benefits of technology. Nowadays, some real estate companies are also utilizing ML to optimize building layout.
Apart from that, with the introduction of 5G, our digital experience will drastically change. It will offer the internet at speed ten times faster than the broadband. As 5G requires cellular towers, a vast network of data centers, and antennas; therefore, it will also affect our building’s design.
#3: Financing and Buying:
The use of Blockchain in the real estate industry solved many inefficiencies like asymmetric information, high transactional costs, a high number of stakeholders, and so on. It enabled the ownership of an asset to be tokenized, meaning a small portion of that asset could now be sold on Blockchain.
Furthermore, it also increased transparency and reduce risks in the transaction process between two parties. Many new Fintech companies offered the buyers to purchase a house over time using a hybrid model that combines rent and ownership payments.
#4: Insurance Services:
Insurance services are a widespread aspect of the real estate industry. And with the introduction of big data, it has become quite useful too. Big data analytics aid insurance companies to make better plans for different regions.
It offers insurance agents to dwell in the right kind of insurance types depending on the specific particularities of that place. With the use of big data analysis, both parties benefit because of the correct sort of insurance.
#5: Construction:
The construction industry was the least digitized industry in the real estate market, but it is now starting to change. The robotics and 3-D Printing technology brought a change in the construction sector too. The use of unmanned bulldozers also revolutionized this segment.
New and more advanced 3-D printers are now simplifying the labor-intensive tasks of the workers. Drones are now being used to provide more insightful information to the workers. In fact, the market for drones is projected to generate a market revenue of 2.4 billion dollars by the end of 2020.
#6: Building Operation and Asset Management:
Science fiction is becoming a reality today. With the inception of robotics in commercial real estate, operators have benefited in managing their properties. Now we have robots to help with laundry, patrol car parking, and even deliver goods to customers.
Besides that, robotics is also helping to simplify repetitive tasks in the back office. Through the use of advanced property management tools, landlords are now able to manage their properties more efficiently.
#7: Tenant Experience:
Of course, technology has made the lives of tenants as much easier as for the landlords. The latest technologies are optimizing the ways companies use their meeting rooms. Chat rooms and video calling apps are making the remote work more efficient while improving the communication between different teams.
Many companies are now offering Space- as a service by combining real estate with the latest technologies. And not just that, they are also becoming more successful by creating new categories like that.
Final Takeaway
Technology has slowly infused the real estate sector. With the advancements in technologies, many aspects of the real estate have transformed into a more useful form. Although buying, selling, or renting of the properties will always remain a physical affair, but the future of real estate transaction is digital. So, companies seeking a competitive advantage should soon become an early adopter of the latest innovative technologies.
